The Amazing Chan Adventures - Season 1
by Known Unknown
Summary: Millennia ago, a battle between two powerful beings left behind shards of pure good chi, forged into artifacts and spread across the globe, slowly being corrupted by world around them. When the Chans chance across one, the resulting chain reaction grabs the notice of those who might use them for evil. It's up to the Chans and their friends to stop them and reclaim them all first!
1. When We Last Met Our Heroes

**Yes, yes, I'm starting this up again. Well... sort of - there's some conditions and provisos, since I'm busy and I've already got one fanfic I'm barely updating to worry about - they're at the end. You may have noticed that I didn't actually finish the last episode before starting this one: well, I'm addressing that too.**

**Disclaimer: Jackie Chan is the property of Jackie Chan, and Jackie Chan Adventures is under the purview of Warner Bros. I own neither.**

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**Previously On The Amazing Chan Adventures:**

**Episode 1 (The Adventure Begins Again): **Our plot begins several years after the final defeat of the demonic dragon Shendu and his treacherous son Drago, as intrepid archeologist Jackie Chan and his adventurous young niece Jade's attempts to enjoy their peaceful lives are ruined when they are sent by a mysterious but wealthy employer - one Tan Xin Gao – to investigate why a team of archeologists have failed to make contact after investigating an ancient ruin deep in the Mexican side of the Lacandon Jungle. Once there they met up with their old friend El Toro Fuerte and his young ward Paco, and made an astounding discovery: the temple, once hidden peacefully from the world, had begun emitting a powerful, destructive light... and Mr. Gao's team had all been slain by something deep within.

As Jackie and El Toro attempted to explore the temple on their own, Jade and Paco snuck along. As is typical, everyone ran into trouble. Powerful and deadly spirits lurked within the temple alongside dangerous secrets, and both groups were nearly killed by the seemingly demonic monsters and traps. After a few close calls and a risky reunion, the Chan and Fuerte clans were able to make it to the center of the ruin where they found an ancient gem – one of many – and learned of its amazing past:

These artifacts, supposedly shards of power splintered from the soul of an ancient good chi wizard, were split around the world to be protected by each of the strongest forces for good of its time – each had its own share of the wizard's unearthly power, and each was guarded by powerful spells that would only be broken by the use of a certain trait that the wizard prized. What's more, they learned that the more the shards were sought by immoral beings, the more the pieces were corrupted by the evil of those seeking them. In the present day, the shards have become twisted and dangerous – and only the actions of a true hero can stop them from tearing the world apart.

In short, it was the start of another globetrotting adventure for the Chans – this time with help, for El Toro and Paco pledged to join in the quest as fully as they could (which, much to Jade's chagrin, meant moving temporarily to San Francisco). However, they were not alone in searching for the shards – for unbeknownst to them Mr. Gao has also set his eyes set on their power, with unknown goals in mind…

**Episode 2 (Old Friends and Enemies):**

In their second adventure, the Chans are informed soon after their return from Mexico (so soon, in fact, that El Toro had not made plans to leave Mexico yet) that Xu-Lin, Jade's old friend from China, has been attacked by a coalition of a supposedly powerless Daolon Wong and the nameless monk who once threatened her before, back when she was guardian of the mystical Lotus Temple. The Chans immediately travel to China to protect her, but on the way back to San Francisco is becomes evident that the wizards did more than just attack her – they brought the curse of the Lotus Temple back out of her… and the monster that came with it.

While dealing with a friend who could turn into a destructive beast at any time, the Chans attempted to figure out what the wizards were up to… only to learn the truth too late: like Xu-Lin, the monk still had the curse of the Lotus Temple within him waiting to be brought out, and by re-cursing Xu-Lin he planned to remove himself of being the temple's guardian. Then, with Xu-Lin under their mental control, it would be child's play to raid the temple for whatever ancient knowledge they sought – including a way to remove the restrictions Uncle placed on Daolon Wong's power years ago. It was a plan which was all too successful: for our heroes discovered this far too late. Catching the Chans unawares, Wong and the monk took Xu-Lin and nearly trapped her yet again within the temple's walls. It was only with the in-the-nick-of-time help of the Chans and their friends that she was saved, Wong and the monk were defeated, and the temple was left in peace once again.

As the dust cleared, there was good news and bad news. Daolon Wong had access to his full power once again, but was on the run and without allies. The monk broke off their partnership, but got away with exactly what he wanted: a scroll of unknown origin (and unknown to them, he reports directly to Mr. Gao). And, most importantly, Xu-Lin is still cursed. Luckily, Uncle – while unable to save her completely after what the wizards did to her – was able to alter the curse so that it would activate in a situation of her choosing: if her friends were in danger.

The adventure ends with Xu-Lin staying with the Chans for the foreseeable future, and their odd family that much larger for it. Their next adventure will begin as the next step of the artifact hunt begins…

**Our Cast of Characters (as introduced thus far):**

**The Adults:**

**Jackie Chan:** Still an intrepid archeologist, martial arts master and on some bad days the most seemingly unlucky man on the planet after all these years, Jackie would really rather be spending his time basking in the wonders of history and antiquity. So, naturally, he is once again pulled into a battle for his life, the lives of his loved ones, and the fate of the world - luckily, he's still got it.

**Uncle: **Cantankerous as ever and still abrasively wise, Uncle's wealth of chi knowledge has only grown... now if only all his relatives and their increasing crowd of friends would finally get out of his property. It's said that Section 13 is looking into whose Uncle he actually is… with no success.

**Tohru:** His mercenary past long behind him, Tohru is far down the path of the chi wizard – and though he is nowhere as skilled as Uncle, he's getting there. Yet despite his size, power and determination, as Jade and Jimmy will attest he's still an enormous softie.

**Captain Black: **Section 13 is now entirely an agency dedicated to the study and control of supernatural events, which means Captain Black calls upon Jackie and his skills quite often. No nonsense but a lot more fair than anyone else would be in his position, Captain Black still just wishes he could get the hang of this "magic" thing.

**El Toro Fuerte: **Over the years El Toro has become akin to Mexico's national hero, and scourge of criminals everywhere. He sees the current situation as partially his responsibility, as the threat began in Mexico – and as such has pledged to be more involved in dealing with it than previously.

**Viper (mentioned):**Ex-super thief, now security consultant, dashing socialite and all around cool-person, Viper has been half-teasingly half-seriously bugging Jackie about their perpetually awkward relationship for a while – and isn't above bringing their friends in on Jackie's embarassment. Last seen somewhere in Europe.

**Mr. Gao:** A reclusive Chinese-American billionaire with designs on the power the Chi Artifacts hold. Aided by his equally enigmatic personal assistant and whatever expendable personnel he can spare (quite a bit), Gao seeks to unite the artifacts for reasons unknown but decidedly less altruistic than our heroes'. Jackie and co. are so far unaware that Gao is opposing them however…

**The Chi Wizard (mentioned): **Not much is known about the Chi Master who, thousands of years ago, split his being into several pieces and spread them across the world as the Chi artifacts. All that is known is left to legend: a great ancient evil and a last ditch attempt that greatly increased the hero's power – enough to win, but also enough to fear. To ensure that no evil could ever take his power for himself, Wizard gave shards of his power to his students around the world… and now, someone aims to steal them all.

**Daolon Wong: **Even more ancient than before, Daolon Wong risked everything to sneak into the Lotus Temple - guided by the mysterious monk - and retrieve an ancient spell that could return his power to him... but in the end, victory was his! His location is currently unknown, and he remains unaffiliated with any other villains.

**The Deadpan Monk (First appearance: "The Lotus Temple"):** A cunning magician who speaks in riddles and proverbs. What the monk lacks in power as compared with Uncle and Daolon Wong he more than makes up for in resourcefulness, scheming, and knowledge of hidden treasure. At some point, perhaps all along, he was hired by Gao to track down objects of unknown origin - and in the end he managed to steal a map detailing just that around the world...

**The Teens:**

**Jade Chan:** The years have been good to Jade: they have brought her more maturity than you might think… but a lot less than she really needs. Still brash, uncouth and impulsive, she nevertheless enjoys the fact that Jackie trusts her more to be involved in his work than he used to. Though she all too often risks that trust and does her own thing, it's nearly always because she follows her heart.

**Paco:** An street urchin who became El Toro's adopted ward, and one of Jade's closest friends/rivals. Like Jade, Paco has slowly become more involved in his guardian's work over the years – he likes to think himself El Toro's official sidekick… then again, he likes to think he's a lot of things. Yet though his ego is huge, it's nowhere near as big as the heart of gold he keeps hidden away.

**Jimmy (first appearance: "J2 Revisited"):** Tohru's very own chi apprentice, who usually remained uninvolved in the Chans' more dangerous adventures before now – often either due to fear or because of his family's restrictions. Though he shows great aptitude in chi magic, he is timid around the more ambitious lessons for reasons only known to him and Jade. He is timid and cautious, but can be fiercely determined when his mind is made up.

**Xu-Lin (first appearance: "The Lotus Temple"):** Jade's longtime best friend from overseas, Xu-Lin was once cursed to be the monstrous guardian of the Lotus Temple before being freed by Jackie and Jade – and she begrudgingly brought with her some of its knowledge. After her curse returned thanks to Daolon Wong, she became stuck with a less unstable version of it. Usually serene (yet with a tendency towards melodrama), she has a way of making sure everyone gets along.

**The Chi Artifacts:**

**The Emerald (Life):** A precious jewel found deep within the Mexican jungle. Activated by perseverance, the gem can - in the right hands - accelerate growth and spread life. While corrupted, the gem instead _destroyed _life, causing sickness and decay to spread in its presence.

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**Author's Note: **So... yeah. We're back with the Amazing Chan Adventures... sort of. Before I start this, there's two things that I'm just going to have to admit to myself: 1) that between this, Wolfbatman and real life I'll have a lot on my plate and 2) if given the choice between this and Wolfbatman, I'd prefer to finish Wolfbatman (which is a much longer story than this one). I'm kind of continuing this on a whim - the first two episodes of this were my earliest stories and I'm not 100% proud of them, but I've always liked the ideas I had for this series, so I'm going to stick with it a long as I can - and if I have to give this up, I'll make sure to at least try for a conclusion.

As for skipping the end of the second story, well... that story just kind of fell out of my brain at one point. I know exactly what was going to happen, but I just couldn't finish it. So I decided to skip it and narrate it in a "previously" section. If anyone was really looking forward to a big battle between the Chans + Tohru and Jimmy, and Daolon Wong, the monk and a mind-controlled Xu-Lin, well... er... sorry. It was really epic in my head, too - but I just couldn't get it down on paper.

As a final note, the characters with "first appearance" notes were initially one-shot characters on the show - so just in case you didn't quite remember them, there you go.


	2. Life on Fire Breath: Part 1

**Disclaimer:** Jackie Chan and/or Jackie Chan Adventures not owned by me.

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**Life on Fire... Breath: Part 1  
**

_A Few Miles Outside of Odense, Denmark.  
_

All in all, it had started out as a very good day for tracking down stolen antiques – not only had the tip Viper received about the infamous Boeddel art smuggling ring led to a paper trail more obvious than Jade when she was up to something, but her contacts had all pulled though, her references all checked out, her flight to Denmark had been lovely (her favorite movie was playing), and it had turned out to be a perfectly cool night for sneaking. Some days it paid to be an ex-thief-turned-hero: tracking down other criminal masterminds had its thrills, to be sure.

Though admittedly, sometimes the clichés of the genre made her groan a little.

"An abandoned warehouse in the middle of nowhere. Naturally." Viper said as she reached the address her final contact identified as the Boeddel's hideout. She almost had the urge to laugh. "You think they would have a little imagination. These places are the easier than anything to break into."

And break into it she did, with her process as methodical as any of her high profile operations back in her less-than-legal days. She guessed that if there were any security measures they would certainly be focused on the roof – after all, this whole situation _was_ ten shades of cliché – so she went with one of her tried and true alternate methods: a blocked window. True, windows were generally seen as amateurish and poor judgment, but there was a method to this approach: in most buildings, especially warehouses, there were often windows that were stuffed with clutter – furniture, piled up junk, or in this case, lots and lots of boxes.

Usually, these openings would be ignored by a prospective spy - after all, they were in most instances essentially blocked. But Viper prided herself on her nimbleness and unconventional approaches.

Upon spotting a high window partially obscured by boxes, all she had to do was ensure that she didn't audibly disturb any of the clutter on the way in. Just as nobody ever used them to enter, nobody ever expected them to be used, so nobody ever looked in their direction. Simple.

Usually at this point she would slip into the shadows for a quick scan for security and her objectives, but instead she quickly picked up on a very confusing fact: there were no guards. There was no alarm either: silent or otherwise. There wasn't so much as a cat with a bell tied to it. For the supposed headquarters of an international smuggling ring, things were not only too quiet - they were too _empty._ It made her nervous: she smelled a rat.

"This is odd." she glanced over to the boxes she had just climbed over, eyes narrowing in suspicion. "I wonder…" As quietly as she could (just because there didn't _seem_ to be any guards didn't mean there wasn't actually anyone there) she wedged opened one of the crates and took a peek inside, just to be sure.

To her surprise, there wasn't anything remotely resembling a stolen piece of art inside. "Oranges?" She gasped. "They're smuggling oranges? No, wait, that's silly. Something's not right here…"

Now on high alert (though not entirely sure she should be), Viper decided to forgo her usual instincts and make a beeline for the center of the warehouse (which would usually be the best guarded area, besides an office if there was one), someone feeling that if there were anything of interest to be found in this creepy place it would be there.

Another surprise awaited her: there was something there, but it still wasn't art, and it wasn't a guard either. Dead in the center, there was a large open area – obviously intentionally left clear of storage for reasons unknown. But more importantly, in the middle of that clearing a man was tied up and left hanging from the ceiling upside down. He wasn't struggling and barely moved, and Viper initially thought she might have been too late the save the poor fellow, whoever he was, but after a moment he started to speak.

"You're finally here, I was getting worried." He coughed, in a voice Viper thought she could've recognized if it didn't sound so strained. This guy has clearly taken a beating for some reason.

She inched close to the prisoner, who began looking at her expectantly as she swept around to his front. As soon as she got close enough to get a good look, she gasped again. Injured or not, Viper immediately recognized the smarmy face that floated upside down in front of her.

"Philip Crane!"

Crane was among the greatest thieves in the world now that Viper had gone straight, and thanks to the machinations of ex-crime lord Bartholemew Chang he had since gained some extra reputation for being Viper's "archenemy" of sorts. Viper herself thought the whole thing was a big exaggeration initially fabricated by a man who seemed obsessed with fulfilling some kind of supervillain power fantasy, but Crane _was_ a threat and as such she had been tracing his actions for a while. She knew he knew she was on to him and had been expecting some kind of confrontation eventually, but she never would've expected to find him literally tied up in the middle of a totally _different_ case.

He certainly seemed calm enough, even in whatever unfortunate position he had found himself in. "There we are," he sighed in that trademark British drawl of his, albeit weakly. She almost felt a bit of concern for whatever had happened to him. "Knew you'd be along in time, love."

Her confusion. "You're behind… whatever this is?"

"Not me, no. The person with that honor should be along right about…"

He trailed off, just as iron bars suddenly slid across every window in the building. The rope Viper used to climb scale up to the window fell to the ground, severed, as a metal sheet slid _under_ those bars for extra measure – even the skylight, which she has consciously avoided, had been covered up. She didn't even need to look towards the door to know some kind of lock had barred that shut as well – this was definitely a trap, and there was obviously no way out.

"… now." Crane finished. A rueful smile slid across his face. Viper mentally kicked herself: she should've known this was all too easy.

"You set me up?" She raised an eyebrow. She knew Crane had it out for her, but still… "So much for honor among thieves… or ex-thieves."

"Sorry, love," To her surprise, he actually did seem a little apologetic. If only a little. "Our host, as it turns out, is quite persuasive."

"And who might that be? Chang?"

"Not as such, no."

She whipped around at the sound of a new voice. Above her, on top of stack of boxes some distance away, stood a ragged but still oddly dignified looking man. His face was unfamiliar to her - for some reason she felt it should be, but in any case it was warped by misfortune and what looked like a lot of rage.

"Viper," his voice was tense, like he was barely holding back his emotions. She really didn't want to find out why. "We finally meet in person, though it feels like I already know you so well."

Viper had no idea what he was talking about, but if she let him monologue she was sure she could case out an escape route – only two sentences in and already he seemed like the blathering type.

"I'm sorry I can't say the same," she quipped. Wit, of course, was one of the most important things about being an international ex-thief, though her captor didn't seem to think she was so charming. His eyes were cold and fidgety, and he looked almost disappointed.

"Oh, no?" He began, but before he could explain he was interrupted by Crane.

"Hey!" Crane himself back and forth a little, trying to get their attention. "I did what you wanted, now let me go!" Crane shouted, and Viper felt whatever concern she had been feeling disappear into her usual dislike for him. "You already have her, you don't need me!"

And at this point, Viper discovered that this mysterious mastermind - whoever he was – was a walking flamethrower. By way of diving out of the way as a burst of flame blew past her and singed the tips of Crane's hair. It was vaguely discolored – more white than red – but was clearly hot and would have easily burnt her to a crisp if not for her quick reflexes. Even more shocking, he fired it from his mouth – there was only one thing Viper knew of that could do something like that, and as far as she knew it wasn't in this dimensional neck of the woods by a long shot. This was something else…

"Eep!" Crane shrunk back, at least as much as a person who it tied up and upside down can. "Sorry, sorry. Don't mind me…" He quickly averted his eyes and started pretending he wasn't there - clearly not going to be a lot of help, as Viper couldn't help but think. Ignoring her so-called "archenemy," she turned back to the man who had trapped them both here, and who was regarding her with an unsettlingly cold fury.

"So you don't remember me." He growled. She was still a bit stunned from the fire-breathing display, so she only nodded. Internally she groaned – this wasn't going to be good, she just knew it. "You don't remember a job you pulled years upon years go, in this very city?" He continued. "Before you started pretending to be a crime-fighter. A daring theft of a series of priceless oil paintings, lifted straight from the collection of a private owner: me."

It all came flying back to her: a wealthy heir with a collection that was just dying to be pilfered. A young thief who was already gaining a reputation as one of the best in her field. A set of buyers with a lot of money to spare. It all added up to something that was totally irresistible to her younger, much less virtuous self. And now her post-redemption self was paying for it. Talk about karma.

"That's what this is about?" She shouted. "Come on, you're filthy rich! You had insurance. I'm sorry for what I was like, I mean that, you were probably paid back double what those paintings were worth anyway. It's certainly not worth… this! Whatever this is."

His face contorted with anger. _"_You think this is about money? _Those paintings were irreplaceable!"_ She jumped as he suddenly began roaring. The temperature suddenly shot up about a dozen degrees. "My great-grandfather made those while still a poor sailor, barely making ends meet. They were the culmination of his entire life, _masterpieces,_ and my family's legacy. And you stole them all and squandered your ill gotten gains among the criminal element for a quick buck."

She gulped. Served her right for not doing her research when she needed it. Still, maybe she could appeal to his better nature. "I didn't know. Please, I-"

"You couldn't see the way my family looked at me after that." He interrupted her. "The way they judged me for losing my birthright. How I had shamed my name. And so, I became… obsessed with recovering them. After all, it was my own fault for failing to protect my legacy. I poured every cent into my search, to no avail. I found nothing. Eventually, I was left destitute and disinherited. I lost everything: my money, my company, my family's respect… your theft began a downward spiral that ruined everything! I let you destroy the most valuable things in the world to me. But I won't let you get away with it."

Viper began to back away as slowly as she could. She still couldn't find a way out, and that was starting to trouble her more and more as her captor kept talking. His hands were starting to glow – a white-red head that distorted the air around him – and she knew right away that fire _breath_ wasn't the only trick he was planning to use. But as bad as it was getting, it appeared she had no other choice but to keep listening to him and hope for a opening to run for would have laughed at her rotten luck if the situation wasn't getting so dire.

"It was just my luck to find this miserable bandit trying to steal the last scraps of valuables I had left," he continued, "just as you did." He aimed a kick at Crane's midsection, and ignored the muffled "ow" he got in response. "But with my newfound abilities, I easily… persuaded… him to help me find you and lure you here with false clues."

Viper figured now was as good a time as any to interrupt. "Speaking of which… that's a really interesting set of superpowers you got there. Mind telling a girl how she might get a set of fire-fists of her own?"

It was a very transparent question, she knew. But she was severely distracted and struggling with the onset of panic at this point – she figured a little fishing for answers could be excused just this once. Unfortunately for her, her captor didn't seem to think so.

"The only thing you need to know about this power is that it will soon be used to exact vengeance upon you." His eyes literally burned as rage boiled over him. The air around him began to simmer and crackle, and Viper knew the time for reason had run out on her.

Viper gulped. "Um… can't we talk about this?"

"No."

"Heh… worth a shot…"

"Indeed." And with no more than that, a molten wave streaked through the air toward her, cutting off her avenues of escape and engulfing the air around her in a fiery glow…

* * *

_San Francisco, USA: The Day After _

Fortunately, while the events surrounding the Chans' return to the Lotus Temple were pretty emotional for everyone involved the aftermath was easy to clean up. The Lotus Temple disappeared with the dawn and took all traces of the battle with it, so in the end all they had to do was walk away just like last time. But in this, case things were a lot more bittersweet.

It was no clear win: Daolon Wong and the Monk were still out there and free to plot to their black hearts' content, and what's worse Wong had managed to restore his chi magic – he was weak now, but he would eventually be back to his full, former glory. This made Uncle particularly ornery – that is, more ornery than usual. After all the work and research he put into depowering Wong last time...

But even so worse still was the problem of Xu-Lin, who was cursed once more and - with all the mixed magicks running through her - beyond any cure that even Uncle knew of. The girl was miserable, which brought the rest of them down as well.

Telling her parents was painful. They barely understood the whole Lotus Temple business as it was, and now their daughter was suffering once again thanks to more magic that they understood even less. Xu-Lin could barely get through the call, and the moment it was over she shut herself up in Jade's room and refused to talk to anyone – even Jade – for a long time. It was an tense conversation, but eventually her parents agreed that since the Chans were her best bet at finding a cure, Xu-Lin's stay with them would be extended for as long as needed.

As soon as that was done Jackie made sure to call Captain Black - he knew his old friend would need some answers after their unpleasantness the day before. He was expecting the worst, but surprisingly this talk went a lot better than the last: after so many adventures with Jackie the good Captain learned to be was very understanding. He took Jackie's word for it that Xu-Lin was _probably_ not going to be a problem any more. He did, however, promise to look in every once in a while just to be sure.

As far as Jade was concerned, this meant that meant the issue was closed, which meant that now it was time to move on to life's next adventure. The way she saw it, after having rescued her best friend (mostly...) and beaten a pair of ruthless baddies (driven them off, to be precise…) they needed, no, _deserved_ to have some fun and forget their troubles. So what if nobody else was in the mood to get their spirits lifted? As always, it fell to her to get everyone back in the swing of things.

She already had tons of plans from before the whole "dark wizard" craziness started in the first place: she was ready for an awesome time showing Xu-Lin around San Francisco. Thanks to Uncle's attempts to lessen her curse Xu-Lin hadn't had an episode since the Temple, so the time was right for seeing the sights. Jade already had adventures, pranks, theme parks and all sorts of summer fun-times lined up, which she figured would be very good for helping Xu-Lin get past her traumatic experience.

The big thing standing in her way, however, was school. The whole debacle had forced them to pull Xu-Lin out of China early, so Jade still had a few more days of school before _her_ break began. Which, to make a long story short, is how instead of rocketing down roller coasters like she'd planned, Jade ended up spending the next few days showing Xu-Lin around her classes.

Needless to say, she was not pleased.

"And here we have the ballfield," she droned as she gave what felt like the tenth tour of the grounds a few afternoons later. At this point, nobody needed another tour, but there really wasn't anything else to do. Thankfully it was the last day before the break, not that that helped the wait much. "Used for such thrilling crud as ball games, track and field, and cheerleading or whatever, and this would be a whole lot more interesting if _you hadn't already heard this like a million times before!" _

She kicked the ground in disgust and pulled up a cloud of dust, nearly hitting Jimmy in the process.

Xu-Lin laughed softly. "It is all right, Jade. Really. I do not mind."

She was being sincere: Xu-Lin really was enjoying seeing Jade's school. While it did remind her a bit of home, she was happy Jackie was able to pull some strings and get her permission to sit in on the classes. No matter what it was, being able to spend time with her friends instead of sitting home alone was doing her wonders.

But Jade had got herself into a good rant, and wasn't about to stop just because no one else cared. "I mean, why bother making us stay this week? It's not like anyone's paying attention! We're all thinking about break! It's the same thing every year! They could just quite fooling around and let us home early, but nooo! This place never changes. It's been the same program since I was a kid!"

Jimmy snorted – partly because he had half a dust cloud stuck up his nose. "She's actually kind of right about that," he chuckled. Though the people had changed, high school was – for them – just as boring and listless as grade school, if not more so. Jade blamed the institution of school itself, but Jimmy realized that _everything_ seemed boring when you went on actual adventures in your spare time. It was just a fact of life (if a strange one), so he at least made an effort to find merit in everyday life too.

Sure, whereas Jade used to get lots of attention most people just ignored her these days, and everyone still thought her stories and rants were crazy (so she didn't exactly have a lot of friends), but she had never cared about things like popular cliques anyway. Jimmy was still a loner, but at least now he had Jade to hang out with and nobody tried to bully him any more. Life was good, as far as he thought.

But even he had to admit that with less amazing events bleeding into their school life these days things weren't anywhere near as exciting (and they hadn't been that interesting in the first place), and Jade wasn't exactly good at dealing with boredom.

"I'm just saying," she continued, "if we had something to liven us up this whole routine would be a lot more fun. Maybe if I died off boredom I could haunt the place – that'd be interesting. Though now that I think about it, have we even run into a ghost yet? The best I think of Master Fung..."

From behind them, a high-pitched laugh interrupted their "conversation." "Seems like every time I see you you're saying something nutso, Jade."

Jade groaned and smacked her forehead. "Ugh, Drew."

Some things made Jade convinced that the only memorable things about school were the annoyances. In this case, it seemed that their high school life couldn't help but inherit the rivalries from grade school (things that Jade could honestly do without). Their old classmate Drew still saw Jade as a threat to him being the center of attention, and was as smug as ever in giving her a hard time about it.

Today Jade rolled her eyes and just tried to ignored him, which was kind of hard when he was giving her that half-smirk of his that made her want to punch him. "Lucky you've got your looks, or you'd be totally off the market."

Jade shuddered – Drew had taken to being a teenager in the worst way possible (Jimmy liked to quip that some things never changed they just got worse). She was pretty sure – or at least she hoped - Drew had no actual interest in her besides getting her goat, but the very thought was still nauseating.

"Will you get out of there with that, Drew? Don't make me kung fu your face off."

A few people's heads around them snapped up at the vague whiff of a fight, which bugged Jade even more (the last thing she needed was for this to end up as something serious). She threw the crowd a dirty look, which seemed to get the message across. Most people just shrugged went back to their own business, though the noticed a boy wearing a hoodie over his head continuing to watch them.

(Now that she thought about it, she could swear she had seen the same kid hanging around a few times earlier that day. Perfect. A tag-along. Correction: _that_ was the last thing she needed)

She made a note to get the kid off her back later and turned back to Drew, who had missed the hint entirely and was sidling up to Xu-Lin instead.

"Hey, now. You're new," he leaned over her, giving what he must have thought was a charming grin. "What's a girl like you doing hanging out with Crazy Jade? You're lucky I caught you before all her looney tunes ideas rubbed off on ya. How's about a walk, just you and me?"

He shot her a "winning" smile and a wink that made Jade want to puke. Xu-Lin looked unsure of whether she should be offended or just confused, so she settled on the latter. "Sorry, I'd rather not," she said politely.

Drew blinked, as if he wasn't sure how to field this. "I… um… jeez, what's with the girls today?" He babbled, his "charming" mood turning sour. "I mean, Jade I can understand," Jade scowled. He ignored her, "but am I losing my touch or something? What's with the lack of response?"

Jade didn't bother answering him, but even if she would have someone else beat her to it.

"The only thing you are lacking, you louse, is honor!" The dramatic tone made everyone around them turn and look at whoever was talking. It was the kid in the hoodie, and he stomped over to Drew and poked him with an accusing finger, startling them all. The others shared confused glances, looking for a clue that one of them might now know who it was. That is except Jade, who was instead gaping at the kid with dawning realization. "How dare you speak that way to not only one, but two ladies!" The boy continued, "who taught you your manners? You should be ashamed!"

Drew just stared at him, at an apparent loss for words. In fact, none of them seemed to know how to field this: for Jade and Jimmy the daily verbal spar with Drew was kind of tradition (they could never imagine actually getting _offended)_, and Xu-Lin of course was just trying not to get involved, so none of them had any real context for the boy glaring between them.

All, again, except for Jade, who was crossing her arms and was starting to eye the boy with an equally dark glare forming of her own. Out of the corner of his eye Jimmy noticed her lack of surprise. "So… uh… do _you_ know who this guy is?" He asked, leaning over to whisper in her ear.

Jade sighed. "What, you don't recognize the ham in his voice?" She grumbled, earning her a sharp look. "Just give him a second, you'll see."

"Um… look dude," Drew stammered, once he was able. "I don't know who you are but-"

"Hey!" Another new voice boomed over the yard. From down the way a pair of students the size of small gorillas stomped their way towards them, knuckles cracking. The taller, gritting his teeth so hard that his mouth seemed too big for his own face, was pointing at the kid in the hoodie. The smaller, whose own face could barely be seen under a mop of shaggy hair, was the one who was shouting. "Who's that messing with our bro? Looks like someone wants to get beat down!"

Jade groaned, and even Drew winced. "Oh darn… now you've done it," he mumbled. Sorry about this." The boy and Xu-Lin merely looked confused, but Jade and Jimmy slapped their foreheads in stereo.

One other thing that bugged Jade about dealing with Drew was what occasionally came along with his bad jokes. Somewhere along the line, he managed to fall in with a nasty pair of "friends."

While Drew was just a smart aleck who just liked to irritate people, his so-called buddies Butch and Ernie were an actually mean-spirited pair of musclebound brutes with more cruelty than brains. They were supposedly friends of an older brother of his and claimed to rule the school, which basically meant that everyone was too smart to say different lest a fight ensue (or just didn't care and ignored them, like Jade).

Everyone who knew Drew well knew he didn't actually like them and only starting hanging out with them in a vain shot at popularity (which he regretted ever since), but now he couldn't get rid of them.

Normally this didn't matter either way to Jade – Butch and Ernie loved inserting themselves into Drew's business, but she usually tried to avoid Drew anyway (and even they were scared off enough by her kung fu reputation to pick a fight most days). But the thing she needed – for real, this time – was to get in big trouble by getting dragged into a brawl she didn't even want.

So it was against her better judgment that she stood between the two riled-up bullies and the kid. In the corner of her eye she could see Drew inching away. "I don't want to deal with this right now," she groaned. "Can we take a rain check?"

For a second the shorter one (Ernie) looked like he was about to grab Jade as well, but thought better of it. Instead, he and Butch stepped around her as roughly as they could get away with and stood over the kid, glaring. "Stay out of this, Jade," he said. "This is between me and the twig here."

"I am no 'twig!'" The boy declared. With a dramatic motion, he pulled off his hood to reveal his identity. Jimmy and Xu-Lin gasped, being the only people who actually knew who he was. "I am El Paco Fuerte – apprentice to the great El Toro Fuerte – and I will not allow you to push my friends around!"

Jade sighed, and threw her friends an exasperated "see what I mean?" gesture. "This is payback for dragging him into that pyramid, isn't it?" She groaned. Paco shot her a small smile in response, though it was gone almost right away.

The goon squad didn't seem to hear. "Please." Butch growled. He raised his fist up to Paco's nose, expecting him to flinch. "My pinky is bigger than you. What do you expect to do?"

Paco stood his ground, ignoring Jade's obvious attempts to gesture for him to drop it and go away. "What do _you_ expect me to do, you walking mule?"

Butch's eyes bulged out of his head. Without another word, he pulled his hand back to punch Paco's face in… but before he could a hand on his shoulder stopped him. He and Ernie looked back, ready to bring yet _another_ person into this fight, only to find another student even bigger than them giving them a disappointed glare.

"Now, you guys know you're in the wrong here. You shouldn't just go around starting fights like that." The newcomer spoke softly, but maybe because of his size or maybe because of the severity in his voice, the two bullies stopped what they were doing and jumped back. "I won't ask you to apologize - though you should – but I will ask you to break this up before it gets any worse."

Butch and Ernie prided brawn over everything else, and since this was someone even bigger and stronger than they were all the fight seemed to fly out of them. Without so much as an apology they sulked off, grumbling.

Jade gave the gentle giant a well-deserved high-five. "Thanks, Maynard."

Maynard smiled sagely. "No problem, shrimp." He chuckled. Their one-time insult no longer had any malice behind it. "I just wish those two would learn their lesson. And speaking of which…" With a goodbye wave to Jade and her friends, he grabbed Drew and walked off to deliver yet another lecture about choosing friends more carefully.

Now that disaster was averted, Jade wasn't sure whether to sigh with relief or go off on another rant. Being who she was, she decided to go with the rant. "Paco, you idiot!" Paco responded by giving her a cheeky grin, which only made her angrier. "What did I tell you about canning the chivalry stuff! What, do you _want_ Uncle Jackie to blow a gasket on us? Cause I'm not about to get in trouble just because you want to be a bigshot like your hero."

Paco sniffed stuffily – if Jade's words hit a nerve, he gave no sign of it. In fact, his self-important smirk made Jade want to wring his neck. "Sorry if I couldn't stand by and let my friends be insulted, Yade. And you know that on any other day you would have done the same thing. You're just holding back because you're about to be on break."

Jade turned away and grumbled under her breath. "I'll show you "holding back," mouseboy. Honestly…"

Paco cheerfully ignored her and turned to Jimmy and Xu-Lin. He met them before, of course – though Xu-Lin much fewer times – and he did actually feel a little bad about starting a scene in front of them. "Though… I _am_ sorry this started off so badly," he said sincerely, and held out his hand. He usually saved the actual sarcasm for Jade. "I just wanted to come and say hi. Long time no see, Xu-Lin. And not so long, Jimmy, but _que pasa?" _

He made a show of greeting then both, though they were all just waiting expectantly for Jade to start ranting again. And sure enough…

"And another thing!" She interrupted them right on cue, and decided to ignore the fond glances the other three were sharing. It's not like _she_ was the problem here. "What's all this about not liking insults? We insult each other all the time, and you…. wait." She suddenly stopped talking and stared at Paco, who looked a bit uncomfortable.

"What?"

"When you were talking to them, you said…" she stammered - first stunned, then suspicious. "Wait a minute, say my name!"

"_Y_ade." Paco said innocently.

"Aha! Now say his name!" She pointed to Jimmy.

"_J_immy." Paco said, just as innocently.

Jade twitched. "Agh! You just… you… that's it! There's like two hours until school ends, and I ain't spending it here! Come on, Xu-Lin!"

Xu-Lin shrugged at the boys and followed Jade off of the yard, giggling as much as she could without Jade noticing. Once the two were out of earshot, Paco and Jimmy burst into laughter themselves.

"I gotta admit," Jimmy said between chuckles. "That was pretty funny. You've been waiting to do that forever, haven't you."

Paco grinned. "I knew that set her off. I wonder if I can remember to keep it up."

"Probably not," Jimmy shrugged. He put out his hand for a high five. "Still, it's good to have ya back, Paco."

"Likewise, _H_immy." Paco mock-gasped and exaggerated putting his hand to his mouth. "Whops! Well, I guess not. I suppose that means we can catch up with the girls now."

Jimmy didn't bother answering. Laughing all the way, the two rushed off to rejoin Jade and Xu-Lin again… not noticing the two pairs of eyes resentfully watching them leave.

_Several Hours Later_

It obviously took more than just a few minutes for Jade to cool down, which was just as well. Unlike Xu-Lin, Paco didn't actually have permission to join in on Jade's classes – he only showed up to quickly let them know he had arrived instead of being bored out of his mind waiting at Section 13 with his mentor. In the meantime, he waited around at a nearby park for them to be dismissed.

Soon, the bell had rung, the break had officially begun (putting Jade in a very good mood), and they were on their way back to Uncle's Shop / The Chan Household. Which was as good a time as any to get everyone up to speed on what had been going on recently.

"Yes," Paco said, as they finished telling. "El Toro and I heard a little bit about this from Captain Black. So," he turned to Xu-Lin. "This curse can turn you into a monster at any time, then?"

Xu-Lin flinched, but only a little bit. Nevertheless, Jade rounded on Paco right away. "Jeez, mouseboy! Anyone ever teach you tact?"

Paco had the decency to look apologetic. "Sorry, but that's how it was described to me. Is that not what is going on?"

"No," Xu-Lin said quietly. "That is correct, to an extent. I change when certain things happen, when my friends are… in trouble, I suppose. It is just… a bit soon."

"Oh," Paco said, his voice losing its blunt edge. He clearly hadn't meant to offend. "If it makes you feel any better, it feels like we've all been monsters at some point, even Yade – except Jimmy, it seems like. Lucky him."

It was meant to be a joke, but Jimmy still winced. As Jade was the only one actually looking at him she was the only one who noticed, but she decided to give Paco a pass on that one – after all, he had no way of knowing how close to home his comment hit or why. Plus, everyone was laughing and catching up – Paco was now springing into the story of Jade's ill-fated Shadowkhan tattoo (she could swear she would never live that one down) – so there was no use putting everyone on edge by bringing up something that was a secret to half of them. Instead, she caught Jimmy's eye and gave him a reassuring look, which he returned gratefully.

It suddenly caught her attention that Paco was reaching an embarrassing part of the story – it always seemed worse when he was telling it. "Alright, that's enough," she laughed. "Everyone heard that one like a million times, tiny. How about we tell _your_ monster story, _El Paco Diablo?_ See, it all started one Halloween a few years ago, back when Paco here thought he was actually scary-"

"Hey!"

A few blocks later found Jade and Paco in the middle of a totally nonsensical argument over which of them could have beat the other if when were both possessed ("Demon Queen beats a lowly General, mouseboy!" "Does not" "Does too!") while Xu-Lin and Jimmy looked on in amusement. Suddenly, Jade stopped short.

"Wait!" Without much warning she turned and ran into the lot they were passing: a thriving community garden on a once vacant lot, which now happened to be owned by one Jackie Chan.

It was something Jackie had started a few years back as a way of trying to get Jade interested in something besides "chasing after trouble," as he put it. None of Chans were expecting much, even Jackie and especially Jade herself, so they were all pleasantly surprised when she discovered she had a green thumb. It was probably the lure of having control over her own space that got her into it at first – Jackie promised she could personalize her own stretch of the garden however she wanted (within legal limits), and there was something to being able to climb to the tops of trees she had planted herself.

However, though it was some distance from the shop and they didn't always have time to spare for it, over time the garden became to be more than just a way to show off. Though of the whole family Tohru showed the garden the most attention – thanks in no small part to his prize-winning onions (long story) - Jade would stop by at least once a week to see how her section was doing. Jackie had his own personal wing where he would sometimes relax by planting "boring stuff," as Jade put it, and Uncle was currently on probation (he never could grasp the idea that chi spell ingredients don't always grow well next to fresh fruit).

Today, she only had a little addition to make. "This'lljusttakeasec." She shouted very quickly (if not for the fact that they were all fluent in Jade, the others might not have understood a word). Running over to her wing of the garden, she hurried to a row of unique flowers and odd growths and quickly planted a few flower seeds. After a quick watering and a surprisingly thorough (for the speed she was going) inspection she ran back to her friends, who looked somewhere between intrigued and amused.

"I never thought you would be were the type for gardening, Jade. Seems more like something I would be interested in." Xu-Lin smiled, though there was the tiniest hint of a joke in her voice. Jade scowled. "What were those?"

"Just a daisy of something." She said, and she rolled her eyes at the chorus of snorts while fighting tooth and nail against the red threatening to color her face. "Ha ha, laugh it up. I'll have you know it's actually kind of fun. And my collection's been getting pretty big, too, but they can't be exotic seeds from China or Mexico _every _week."

"If you say so, Jade," Jimmy said, in his nonchalant way that almost sounded like he totally serious. Jade glowered.

"Whatever," she grumbled. She walked ahead of the others, leaving the garden behind. "Let's just get home before Uncle Jackie starts wondering where we are."

When they arrived, El Toro was unsurprisingly already there. Uncle and Tohru were gone for the weekend - off to an ancient antiquities convention out of town - so it made sense that Jackie would stick to home instead of Section 13. But what _was_ surprising was that Jackie was packing a suitcase, as if he was going on a trip.

As soon as she put it together Jade's face lit up. She sidled up to Jackie just as he was finishing his packing. "A trip? Awesome! Where're we going?"

"To Denmark. Viper called." Jackie was grunting, as he was trying to slam his suitcase closed.

Jade giggled. "Oooh. I get it." She elbowed him in the ribs with a knowing smirk.

Jackie blushed and inadvertently slammed down on the suitcase, finally getting to to lock."It's nothing like that, Jade." He said. "She called Captain Black. She probably just wants a ride back home, so we're going to get her up to speed on the way."

"You mean you don't know?"

"All we got was a short signal. She's been busy with some art thieves, so when we told her about the chi artifacts she said she would call us when she's ready to get involved. And now she's called. If it was something else, she would've explained what it was, wouldn't she?"

"Point." Jade shrugged and walked away. "Well, good luck with that."

Jackie and El Toro shared a glance. They hadn't expected her to be so casual. "You do not wish to come with us?" El Toro said. "We thought you would be on board with seeing _La Vibora _right away."

Jade dismissively waved it off. "Usually I'd be all for it, but all you're doing is flying to Europe to pick her up and coming right back. I don't really feel like spending the next 24 hours of my life sitting on a plane. It's the first day of break for Pete's sake."

Jackie nodded. "Makes sense. And I suppose with Uncle and Tohru at their antiquing convention, someone has to watch the shop." Jade rolled her eyes. Jackie sighed. "Just try not to destroy the place, okay."

"Tch. Please, Uncle Jackie – what do you think I am, ten?"

"Must I remind you of what happened last month?"

"Hey," Jade shouted defensively. "That incident with the dvd player could have happened to anybody. Those things are, like, built to explode!"

Jackie facepalmed. Meanwhile, El Toro turned to Paco. "Do you not want to go either, _Pachito?_"

Paco blushed slightly at the nickname. "We just got here, El Toro…"

El Toro laughed and ruffled his ward's hair, causing Paco to blush even more. "I understand. In that case, help us to the car."

Since they were just packed for a day or so, it didn't take long to get El Toro and Jackie's things in the trunk. Pretty soon, the two of them were starting the engine and waving their goodbyes to the teens.

"Stay safe, my boy." El Toro said to Paco, who smiled in return.

"Aye aye, El Toro."

"I mean it," Jackie said, sternly. "I want you to keep each other out of trouble. It's only a day, but you never know what might happen." He looked particularly at Jimmy and Xu-Lin, making it very clear who he wanted them to keep out of trouble. Jade and Paco glared at him.

"I swear, it's like you don't trust us at all!" Jade huffed. Jackie patted her shoulder reassuringly.

"I trust you. But I also know you very well, so better safe than sorry." With that, he and El Toro pulled off the road. "See you soon!"

And so they left. The teens waited outside and watched as their car drove into the distance. After a while, Jimmy turned to the others. "So… now what?"

Meanwhile, Jackie and El Toro made a little small talk: "It is a good thing we are finally starting to trust the children on their own." El Toro said, keeping his eyes on the road.

"Yes. I give Jade a hard time, but she can usually be trusted not to blow anything up when she knows she's supposed to be responsible. Provided she doesn't stumble onto anything weird… or she and the others don't work themselves up into doing something reckless… or… this was a bad idea, wasn't it?"

"Now now, Jackie, you must trust your niece. She is no longer a child," El Toro said, though Jackie wasn't sure whether or not he was just lying to make him feel better. "But teenagers can surprise you. The same thing happens with Paco. It feels like that boy can be goaded into anything, sometimes."

"Xu-Lin and Jimmy will probably help, but you're right. Paco and Jade are very mature. I'm sure they won't provoke each other into doing anything crazy."

"…"

A long moment passed, before Jackie buried his face in his hands.

"Uncle is going to kill me, isn't he?"

El Toro's nervous laughter didn't help. "Maybe we should talk about something else…

* * *

**Author's Note:** Now, before the high school stuff causes a riot, this is the only episode I have planned to involve it to a major extent (in the B-Plot). It'll get more interesting, I promise.

Drew was fun to adapt - I kind of saw a high school Drew as being a mix between Flash Thompson and Johnny Bravo. Likewise, it was nice to bring in Philip Crane - I really liked the Chang Gang in general, so the thought of including them at certain points here appealed to me. Pretty much the only characters I have absolutely no desire to use are Strikemaster Ice and co.

On the off chance that anyone remembers the first story, the pyramid thing is a reference to that. As is the idea that Paco is big on chivalry, and does it in part to act as heroic as El Toro.

As a note (this is something I mentioned in the previous story, I think): as this is a few years after the events of the series, while some of the main characters hadn't met at the time of the series they're all pretty much familiar with each other by now. I'm mostly thinking of Xu-Lin and Jimmy, in case anyone is wondering why Paco already knows who they are - Jimmy being Tohru's apprentice and thus around whenever anything happens in San Francisco is already friendly with him, and Xu-Lin occasionally met him on situations when the J-Team ever went to China.

In fact, the idea that stuff has been going on is going to be a running thing - it comes up in Crane's introduction too, that he and Viper have a kind of running rivalry. The Chans and friends have been having continued adventures for a while now, though the constants so far are that none of them were exactly world shattering and until Daolon Wong got released none of them involved their biggest enemies.


	3. Life on Fire Breath: Part 2

**Life on Fire... Breath: Part 2**

_**Denmark**  
_

The flight to Odense was lengthy but relaxing, which Jackie had to admit was something of a rarity for him in situations like this. Whenever the J-Team came together for any reason, it seemed like some manner of trouble was sure to follow them at every turn – he was legitimately surprised that he and El Toro hadn't run into any foreign spies or ancient cults on the way to the airport. And much to his surprise, after half a day of flying their trip overseas ended up being just as uneventful so far. The change of pace was actually refreshing, if a bit suspicious for someone so used to being a danger magnet as Jackie was.

Having left California in the afternoon, it was well into the morning when they arrived in Denmark. They exited the plane expecting Viper to meet them in the airport, ready to hop onto another plane back to Section 13 straight away or at least have a place ready for them so they could debrief. Instead, they got nothing: Viper was a no-show, which was very unlike her – she enjoyed her roguish image, but she never outright _missed_ things this important.

At first thinking that perhaps she had been held up or was planning on making some sort of entrance, the two waited in the baggage claim. And waited. Until finally, just when they thought they couldn't keep waiting, they waited some more.

It took almost two hours for them to run out of patience for the stiff, uncomfortable benches in the airport lobby and the odd looks they were getting from passerby, and by that point they had to admit to themselves that they couldn't think of any other reason for the delay.

Something really _had_ gone wrong.

With nothing else to do they got themselves together, rented a car and headed for the area that Viper told Section 13 she was staying. Of course, with thief instincts as ingrained as Viper's were there was always a good chance she was leading the organization on with a decoy address, but it was as good a place as any to start.

The address turned out to be for an overly lavish luxury hotel in the most bustling part of the city. Jackie and El Toro could tell just by looking at the building that it was well outside of either of their usual price ranges, which naturally meant they ended up having to pay for a room anyway despite having no plans to actually use it – thanks entirely to the rude concierge they had ever met. While he confirmed that a woman matching Viper's description did indeed use the room they had on file in the past few days, he refused to say more or even let them above the lobby at all without checking in. He then when they finally gave in, he forced them to wait while they "located" a room on Viper's floor, giving them plenty of time to grumble about it.

By the time they were allowed upstairs, neither Jackie nor El Toro were in any mood to waste more time. Not even bothering to enter their rooms, since they had no luggage anyway, they immediately stormed over to Viper's hotel room and knocked on her door.

There was no response, not even after they shouted so loud that one of the other guests poked his head out of his door just out to yell at them (he took one look at the six foot tall luchador staring back at him and zipped back into his room).

Finally, El Toro let it go with a sigh. "I think perhaps she really did give a false address, _amigo. _We are back to square one."

"No, that can't be right!" Jackie said, continuing to pound on the door out of sheer frustration. "The concierge said she was here!"

"I suspect that _menso_ would have said anything. I'm fairly certain he tricked us into buying our room."

"But… but…" Jackie stammered, a bit childishly. It was no secret that he was not a fan of dead ends, especially given how often he seemed to run into them. And being stuck in the middle of a foreign country because of a dead end didn't help his disposition. "… fine." He sighed. "Maybe you're right. Let's ask Section 13 if she gave another address." He reached for his phone and wondered how badly he was going to scold Viper for giving them the runaround like this.

Before he could make the call, however, a rough hand suddenly grabbed him on the shoulder. "Excuse me…"

"BWAH!" Jackie jumped a foot in the air, nearly dropping the phone. When he landed he did his usual chest pat, just to make sure his poor heart wasn't failing on him. "Please don't sneak up on people like that!" He yelled as he turned.

A man with a rough, twisted face in a hotel uniform greeted him. His eyes were slightly unnerving, for he didn't seem to show much emotion. "Are you looking for the woman who is checked into this room?"

Jackie smiled. Finally, some help! "Well… yes, actually. Do you know where she is?"

"I'm with the hotel," the man droned. "And I'm afraid she hasn't paid us for her stay – or for the subsequent extension."

This was confusing, and not just because it meant the hotel didn't know where she was either. Viper may be a proud ex-thief, but nowadays she was always punctual about paying debts. "The concierge didn't say anything about this when we talked to him downstairs."

"Contrary to his belief, that man doesn't know everything. In fact, he barely knows anything. We've been handling this delicately, but your dodgy friend here is trying to cheat us." The emotionless tone in his voice wavered for just a moment. "We will need… compensation."

He gestured to the door, allowing Jackie to catch sight of small burnt ends on his sleeve. A quick glance to the room showed some slight burns on the edges of the door as well. Jackie's eyes narrowed. There was definitely something wrong here. He caught El Toro's eye, and saw that his friend was just as suspicious.

"Dodgy?" El Toro said. He towered over the man with the rough face, who didn't seem all too bothered by this. "Do not insult us. I'm sure if she has not paid yet, it is for a very good reason."

The man sneered. "Far be it from me to slander the names of deadbeats who don't pay. Just let her know if you see her that the administration is looking for her." With that, he turned on his heel and walked away. Jackie and El Toro watched him go for a minute, before returning to their own problems.

"Should we try to find a way inside?" El Toro asked, jerking his head towards the door.

Jackie scratched the back of his head. He hated when these situations got all complicated like. "… no. Somehow, I think Viper may have cleared out of here already…"

Ten minutes later found the two wandering through a park near the hotel trying to figure things out. Before, the plan had just been to check out as soon as they were done searching, but since picking Viper up was clearly turning into something a bit more involved than originally intended the two decided to hold onto their rooms for now (a total waste of money if you asked Jackie, but then he could always bill Section 13 later).

However, there was nothing left to find at the hotel itself, so they didn't bother sticking around. This left them with no way of knowing where Viper was, no idea why she disappeared off the map and no means of tracking her down, but at least they knew where she _wasn't_.

Which was pretty much nothing, but they took what they could get.

"So Jackie, have you any clue about our next move?" Said El Toro, and Jackie was thankful to hear no trace of impatience in his voice (Jade would be complaining up a storm by now). They had been meandering aimlessly back and forth ever since Jackie suggested a walk would help jog their brains – but by now they had seen half the park with no such luck.

Jackie sighed, staring into the distance. "I don't know. She could be anywhere."

"A needle in a haystack."

"I know. I just wish left us some kind of clue!" Jackie groaned. He was far too tired to hide how frustrated he was. "It'd take a miracle for us to track her down in this-"

He was interrupted by a popping sound, like fireworks. He and El Toro whipped around, and found a small bomb sitting on the ground just behind them. Smoke rose off it in billows, though luckily the wind took it in the opposite direction.

"This is no prank." El Toro said ominously. He glanced at the surrounding area, but there didn't appear to be anyone there. "Should we prepare for a fight?"

Jackie leaned in close and inspected the smoke-bomb, ignoring El Toro's objections for the moment. "No." He said after a moment. "At least not yet. This is only making smoke, and while it's burning up it's only destroying itself. It's not dangerous. This wasn't an attack, it's a message."

As if on cue, another bomb flew from seemingly nowhere and landed in front of them. Just like the first, it made the sound of a firecracker before burning itself to ashes in a cloud of smoke. As soon as that one activated, another landed a short distance after it and did the same.

The meaning was clear. "Then let us see where the message leads!" El Toro said, and Jackie led the way as they rushed after the smoky trail.

The messages led them through the densest part of the park, circling in on itself in places, splitting in two in others. At one point they even did a couple loop-de-loops, but it never led them across any other people. It was all very confusing: either whatever was causing this trail of breadcrumbs was trying to have some fun with them, or it didn't want them to be followed. Either way whoever it was (though he was starting to have his suspicions) always kept _just_ one step ahead of them, no matter how fast they went.

Eventually the trail brought them to a stream at the center of the park and abruptly seemed to stop. There were no more bombs to guide them, nor even a trap at the end of the path. Just a peaceful midday scene.

"Is… that it?"

"No! Look!" El Toro suddenly pointed to a nearby bridge, and Jackie quickly spotted the familiar smoke that was starting to flow from under it. "Quick! The last one is under there!"

Jackie nodded. "I'll get it!" He ran to the stream and slid under the bridge, intending to catch whoever was setting the bombs off guard. It was only at the very last second that he saw a figure leap out from the other side of the bridge and flip over behind him just as he approached – almost too late for anyone to react. Anyone except, perhaps, Jackie Chan.

He prevented himself from sliding into the bridge and jumped to his feet in a stance, ready for battle, but the would-be fight ended as soon as he saw who it was.

Familiar brown eyes winked at him, in their unique way that somehow always made him feel foolish. "Don't look so surprised, boys." Said Viper. "Make any 'troll under the bridge' jokes and I'll stick the next one where the sun don't shine."

"Viper!" Jackie shouted - more like panted, as running after those bombs left him exhausted. "Where have you been?!"

"Hiding out, if you can believe it. Sorry for the wild goose chase." She explained. The familiar smug smirk of a trick well done was plastered on her face. It was her way of laughing at Jackie's tired face, though he could hear in her voice that she too was out of breath from the merry chase through the woods. "You know, the whole snake in the grass routine. It's always been my best skill."

El Toro walked up to them, wiping his brow. "But _why,_ amiga? What could have made you desperate enough to give us a runaround like that?"

Viper looked between the two of them incredulously. "You mean you don't know? What about the message I left you?"

"What message? All we got was the preset call for when you were ready to be picked up."

"You mean I _pressed the wrong button?_" She groaned. She slap her forehead for effect. "Smooth move, Viper. Real smooth. Sorry about that, I was in a hurry."

El Toro and Jackie exchanged nervous looks. What had Viper's accident led them into? Without waiting for them to ask or comment further about the situation, Viper continued.

"Let's just say I ran into some trouble here. Big trouble."

"The crime ring you were tracking down?"

"No. This was one guy. One very persistent guy trying to kill me with powers way outside my usual pay grade, might I add. And super creepy at that." She shuddered in a way that showed she was half-joking. El Toro suppressed a chuckle.

Jackie put up a hand to stop them, for he was suddenly struck with an unnerving idea. "Wait…" he said slowly, just to be sure he was remembering it right. "This man didn't happen to have a jagged, gnarled kind of face, did he? Like he suffered some kind of injury?" El Toro shot him another surprised glance as he realized what Jackie was getting at. "Or an odd way of looking at you, like he's didn't... _feel_ anything?"

Viper's slow stare confirmed his fears before she even said a word. "Right on the nose." She said just as slowly. "Why..?"

"Because we just met a man like that at your hotel. He was loitering outside your room claiming he was staff."

Viper paled. "Oh, great. He really did track me down! And now that he knows you're here, he could-"

A series of explosions – real ones this time – rang through the air from outside the park. The trio looked up to see their hotel, just visible over the tree line, engulfed by a raging inferno that was quickly spreading from its higher levels. A great burst of fire blasted into the air like a jet, then disappeared as quickly as it came – leaving only a mountain of smoke and cracked walls in its wake. Even from the center of the park the screams of passerby could be heard as pieces of stone fell from the building onto the street below. Jackie winced – he might not have liked the hotel, but he didn't want to see it _destroyed._

His eyes narrowed as he tried to figure out where the blast was centered – though once again he had a sneaking suspicion. Just as he feared, through the smoke the sources were _just_ visible: two separate, isolated rooms – each having erupted from the inside by some kind of controlled flame.

"It doesn't take a genius to figure out whose rooms those are." Viper quipped, though her voice was a whisper.

"No, it does not." Jackie agreed.

"Your enemy?" El Toro asked, not looking at Viper. In fact, none of them could look away from the explosion just yet. Viper only nodded, not caring that neither of them could see it, but her silence gave answer enough.

Jackie had never been one to hide his nervousness, and this clearly wasn't going to be the time to start. The Fire Department could handle the damage here, but they obviously had more important things to deal with right now. "You wouldn't happen to have a place we could get up to speed about all this, would you? Hopefully somewhere nice and guarded…"

* * *

**_Meanwhile, In Far Less Dire Straits _**

After seeing Jackie and El Toro off, Jade immediately set out to do exactly what she had been planning to for over a week: it was finally the the start of Spring Break, and nothing – no distractions, no school and especially not any complaints from "mouseboy" ("Boo hoo, I flew in all the way from another country and my arms are _so_ tired") – was going to stop her from dragging her friends to her favorite amusement park to celebrate.

Nothing, perhaps, except a massive thunderstorm erupting just as they entered the park, which shut down most of the actually good rides for the rest of the day.

Though park management was feeling uncharacteristically generous in this case and handed out a few free vouchers to people who got shafted, that didn't do anything to help them now: left soaking wet and spluttering about the unfairness of nature (ignoring Xu-Lin's sly comment that she could've just checked the weather beforehand), Jade had no choice but to abandon her high-flying roller coaster-filled afternoon – _again_ –and find something else for them to do.

The problem was, they couldn't think of anything. It was several false starts later (An arcade? The storm shut those down too. A movie theatre? They couldn't decide on something to watch. Wait out the storm then go back to the amusement park? Even Xu-Lin glared at Jade for that one…), and in the end they wound up right back where they started: at Uncle's shop, deciding to just hang out for a while. And as much as Jade complained, they ended up catching up, playing video games and enjoying doing nothing until well after midnight ("what a waste of a perfectly good opportunity for adventure," Jade would gripe whenever she lost a game, to the collective rolled eyes of her friends. "I'd've been better off going with Uncle Jackie!"), before the ever punctual Xu-Lin pointed out the time.

Paco had a room in Section 13, but decided the secret base would be a bit too solitary without his guardian and "begrudgingly" decided to sleep at the shop (which is to say he pretended as if he hasn't been the one to think of it in the first place), which led Jade to invite Jimmy to dig up the Chans' sole surviving sleeping bag (every time they go camping, something happens. It's a fact of life at this point) and spend the night as well. Then, being teenagers, they went right back to staying up.

Which, to make a long story short, is why when the shop's phone rang early the next morning all of them – even Xu-Lin – were still sleeping in.

Due to this, Jade was severely irritated as she shuffled from her room all the way downstairs. She grasped for the whole with tired hands and pulled it to hear ear, yawning at whoever it was that was calling them so "early" (from a teenager's point perspective of earliness, at any rate). As she fiddled with the phone she scowled at the door to the back room, where Paco and Jimmy were sleeping.

"You guys are literally one room away," she grumbled loud enough that she knew they would her. "And neither of you coulda picked up the phone?"

The only response she got was a snore from Jimmy and a groan from the couch that sounded like it could've been something sarcastic were Paco awake enough to form actual words. Jade grabbed something random from the counter to throw at them, before she realized it was probably worth a lot of money and gently put it back. She would get her payback later…

She suddenly realized whoever was on the phone was still waiting. "Uncle's Rare Finds, whaddaya want?"

Cue the absolute last voice she wanted. "Jade! I know you've got no reason to want to talk, but there's something I gotta tell ya!"

"Drew? Now what? We're on vacation. And how the heck did you get my number, anyway?" She said this very quickly, accidentally cutting off Drew as he attempted to speak up.

"Your Uncle's business is listed in the phone book, genius. Now would ya just _listen?"_

An exasperated sigh. "Fine. What is it?"

"I just wanted to warn ya - look, you're nuts, but it's not like I've really got anything against ya or anything-" Drew was rambling already, but Jade had already gone into alert at the word "warn" and quickly lost her patience.

"_Would you get on with it already?" _She shouted, a little too loud. In the next room over she could hear Paco and Jimmy finally starting to wake up, and she was sure Xu-Lin was probably up by now too. "Look, I don't mean to get mad or anything," she continued, consciously keeping a bit quieter. "But I'm just waking up, so could I get the cliff notes?"

"It's Butch and Ernie!" Drew blurted out. "They said something about being tired of you and Jimmy making fools of 'em, so they followed you to that stupid garden of yours! They were set on wrecking the place and… well… you know how good they are at wrecking stuff. They wanted me to join in, but I didn't help 'em I swear!"

Maybe it was the just-waking-up feeling, but Jade took this with more annoyance than anger. "They ruined our whole community garden just to get back at me? Isn't that kind of petty?"

"Look, I'm sorry. But I-"

***CLICK***

Jade stared at the shut phone for a moment. She was still too tired to deal with this sort of thing. Ignoring the half-awake Paco and Jimmy entirely, she trudged past the living room to get something from the kitchen.

A glass of water was all it took to get her gung-ho attitude back.

"Guys! Wake yourselves up!" She shouted, pounding her first into her palm. It might not have been demons or monsters, but the thought of someone messing with her family's hard work… someone was going to pay. "We've got a little something we've got to fix!"

It didn't take long for the four teens to assemble at the community garden – or more accurately what was left of it.

Butch and Ernie made good on their threat. They were thorough: plants were uprooted everywhere, the ground was dug up and actually salted ("who even does that any more?" Jade ranted), plus they dumped what smelled like turpentine all over the place. Not only was the garden totally wrecked, it was unlikely that anything would grow there again.

Or as Jade put put: "It's a mess! I can't believe those guys!" She walked over to the pile of mulch that used to be her section and pulled out the daisy the planted the day before. It disintegrated in her hands – she didn't even know plants could do that (at least, non-magical ones anyway). She just stared at it for a moment. "They do know that actual people use this place, right? Not just us? Jerks."

"I cannot believe it either." Paco mused. "Who beats up a bunch of flowers to make themselves look tough?"

"Yeah, cause that's what I'm worried about." Jade snapped, though it lacked her usual bite. She gestured for someone to give her a hand, and Paco and Xu-Lin walked over to help sift through the debris while Jimmy hung back for the moment to look around for any remaining sign of the two bullies.

Xu-Lin sighed, poring over a torn up flowerbed. "Such a waste."

"And they took off before we could catch 'em in the act, too." Jimmy said as he returned empty handed. Neither of the two brutes bothered to stick around, even to gloat. "Just a bunch'a cowards." He looked around at the disorder they left behind and sighed. "Looks like there's nothing for it, Jade. I've seen warzones on tv with more life than this place. You're gonna have to find someplace new."

"Always the bearer of bad news, huh?" Jade smiled grimly. Jimmy gave a shrug in return, and she groaned. He had a point. "Uncle Jackie's gonna be so disappointed. This place kinda grew on everybody." The others got tot heir feet and trudged towards the exit, letting Jade hang back for a moment. "It just… wait, _grew!_ Stop!"

Everyone froze. A familiar manic grin grew on Jade's face. "No… we're not moving! I've got a way better idea!"

"We will clean up the whole area?" Paco raised an eyebrow. "Do we look like farmers?"

"Tch, nah." Jade grinned. "Why do all the work ourselves when we've got a perfect way to fix everything back home?"

The others shared nervous glances. They all had far too much experience with Jade to like the sound of that tone in her voice…

**_Meanwhile, At The Antiquing Convention_**

"Aiyaaah!" A few passerby turned as an old man suddenly cried out in the middle of the crowd, but when a man as gigantic as the one accompanying him told you not to worry and to move along, then most moved along. Not caring at all whether people were disturbed, the old man continued to rant. "Uncle has the willies! Could there be spirits about?"

Though he tried to shush Uncle down to a whisper, Tohru spoke with the same urgency. "I feel it too, Sensei. Oni?"

"… no." As suddenly as he exploded, Uncle abruptly calmed down. His voice was graver than ever. "I sense it is something far worse."

"You don't mean… _Jade?_" Tohru responded incredulously – or maybe just hopefully.

"You are right." Uncle sighed, hearing the disbelief in his friend's tone. "After the mess from last time, not even she would attempt to harness powerful magic again without the proper training or supervision."

There was a long pause as they both mulled this over. Then, a double sigh.

"I get the feeling this is something that can wait until _after_ our vacation," Tohru groaned

Uncle snorted, already perusing a nearby vendor as if nothing had happened. "I agree. Uncle is getting too old to sort out _everything_ these days…"

**_Back In San Fransisco_**

Much like Uncle's willies, the others' nervous glances became full fledged senses of dread as Jade unveiled her plan. Particularly when she broke into Uncle's private stores and swiped the gemstone from Mexico, announcing her intent to regrow the garden the magical way.

It was hard to blame them: everyone knew that it was unwise to mix Jade and magic. Though rather, the problem was more that they mixed _too well_. Jade had an amazing natural aptitude with magic and could cast spells of great strength with very little effort. The problem was she had issues with control – and her own impulsive nature and impatience with actually learning the correct way to perform spells didn't help. She had great potential, but her undisciplined mistakes always seemed to case huge disasters.

_Everyone_ had a good "Jade and magic" story, even guys who didn't entirely believe in magic like Kepler from Section 13. Tales like Jade turning herself fifty feet tall, making a thousand clones of herself, turning Section 13 into a literal circus, or that time she accidentally sent her entire class into a mirror universe were the stuff of legend among those in the know.

Xu-Lin found most of these stories amusing from a distance, but she still vividly remembered the time Jade tried to make a way for them to visit one other whenever they wanted, only to accidentally whisk them both exactly halfway between San Francisco and China (AKA, into the middle of the Pacific Ocean). Jimmy hadn't been on as many adventures as the others, but even _he_ was around for the fallout of that one. They eyed each other nervously, trying to think of the perfect way to say "bad idea" without sounding too mean.

Luckily Paco, who had more crazy stories involving Jade and magic than any of them (though admittedly, that was because he always went along with her ideas every time), had no problems being honest. "Are you _loco?_ This thing nearly killed us!"

"Yeah, you heard Uncle." Jimmy said, a little happy Paco had said it before him. "They're still tryin' to figure out how it works!"

"That's just fine tuning and the history and stuff. We already know the basics: when it's all corrupted and junk, it makes things die. _That's_ what almost killed us. But when it's normal – which it is now, thanks to us - it makes things grow. Bam. Instant solution!"

"You say that like it isn't always the first sign of disaster." Paco snorted. "Remember the hypnotic monster Gameboy adventure? Or the time you made it snow over El Toro's _casa_ for over a _month?_ Not to mention the 'J-Tots' incident…"

"Oh, come on. That last one was _years_ ago! Let it go, already!"

"It was a big deal! They were all toddlers! Chang almost killed us all! _And_ you gave me donkey ears!"

"Technically, that was Uncle."

"It was_ your_ fault!"

"Was not."

"Was-"

In the interest of not getting distracted by another argument, Xu-Lin spoke up. "It is not as if this idea would not work, Jade. But… it seems rash. It is dangerous to fool around with untested magic."

Jade rolled her eyes. "What do you guys think I am, ten? Of course we're going to test it!" When the others eyed her skeptically, she snorted. "Look, I'll show you: can someone get me that tiny flower Uncle keeps in his study for 'atmosphere?'"

For a moment nobody did anything. Then, in a complete 180 from his previous attitude, Paco shrugged and promptly left for the study – with only a mock scoff to even imply he still thought it was a bad idea. A minute later he returned with a tiny flower in a large pot, to a pair of very exasperated looks from Jimmy and Xu-Lin.

He smiled sheepishly. "What? I have to admit, I _am_ curious."

Jimmy groaned. "What's _with_ you? You have no willpower, dude." Paco scowled. Without another word he crossed his arms and huffily turned back to Jade.

Realizing that once again there was no stopping them, Xu-Lin and Jimmy inched a safe distance away just in case this literally blew up in their faces (that happened a lot in situations like this), though Jimmy lingered a little closer as he couldn't entirely stop his curiosity either. Xu-Lin, remembering all her bad experiences with magic, seemed to be the only one who still had total reservations.

Jade picked up the artifact and hovered it over the flower. The gem came alive at her touch, glowing in her hand and emitting a faint hum. She and Paco gasped in stereo. "Whoa..." She said, grinning. "This thing doesn't play around. I thought I'd have to say some magic words or something."

"That's great." Jimmy quipped. "Now can we get this over with, already?"

"Tch. Fine." Jade hovered the gem over the wilted flower. Almost immediately the tiny plant sprouted with new life, growing twice as tall in seconds and practically bursting with color.

Satisfied, Jade pulled the gem away. "See? It makes stuff grow." She smirked and stuffed the stone into her jacket. "Nothing to worry about."

There was a short murmur of agreement between her friends. "Okay…" Xu Lin admitted out loud, though she kept a wary eye on Jade's coat pocket just in case. "I guess it's safe for us to go along with for now."

"Of course it's safe! When do I ever do anything without making sure it's safe?"

The others wisely decided not to answer that one. At least, not with words: Paco actually burst out laughing – prompting, of course, another argument from Jade.

"Hey, what's that supposed to mean! It's not like you've never messed up…"

"Have not!"

"Have so!"

Jimmy and Xu-Lin merely rolled their eyes and followed their feuding friends out the door, hoping this fight wouldn't last all the way back to the garden.

An hour from now they would probably wish they had stayed for a few minutes longer. With their backs turned and their attention elsewhere, none of them could see the flower, and so no one noticed the sudden cracks forming in the flowerpot as the roots within slowly but surely continued to grow, far too large for their home to hold…

Perhaps if they had stayed, Jade would have thought twice about playing around with magic again. But since they didn't, she didn't, and in thirty minutes they were just finishing up hovering the Gem over every spot in the garden, oblivious to the possible danger. At first glance it all seemed to be going perfectly, and they had no reason to think otherwise. Jade's idea worked exactly as she thought it would: no matter how badly Butch and Ernie had ruined things, all the damage to the garden was being steadily wiped away thanks to the ancient magic.

Jade was of course feeling very smug about this. "Told ya," she said, as she finished the last section of the vacant lot. "So much for doing all that work again – some days I don't know how I ever got along without chi spells."

"Technically this is not a chi spell," Xu-Lin pointed out, "it is some kind of ethereal influence."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. Point is, there was no reason to get all up in arms at all. Instant fixes all the way, baby!"

Paco looked over the yard, slightly wary. "Should we go over it again, just to be sure?"

"Nah. Look, see? It's growing. Which means you can stop worrying, Xu-Lin!" She sent a teasing but entirely friendly grin Xu-Lin's way, earning a mock sigh in response.

She was right: the grass was coming back, and the flowers were blooming again. The damage seemed to fade away as the gem's enchantment did its work. It was looking like the Chan family's only non-adventure related hobby would live again.

The sprouts were soon even taller than before. Jade's collection turned into a full-on flowerbed, and even Uncle's small chi-ingredient garden was looking healthy. While the others looked on with awe, Xu-Lin decided to get a closer look and walked over to a still-growing bush of incredibly bizarre looking flowers - souvenirs from an globetrotting trip Jade and Jackie made years before.

"I thought you brought home only one of these!" She said, amazed.

Jade couldn't have looked prouder of herself. "I sure did! The place is growing a lot, it looks like! I told you guys. This thing is great!" She kissed the gemstone in her hand with a big, wide grin.

And at that, the universe finally responded to Jade's overconfidence.

There was a loud snap, and all of a sudden the Earth shook. The ground under Xu-Lin's feet burst open, and she jumped back towards the others just as a long vine snaked out of the ground. And that wasn't the only one: all across the garden the fauna was growing out of the ground in vines and spreading out, wrapping around street signs and creeping up the sides of the surrounding buildings. On the street the others stepped back as the vines grew out of the confines of the garden, but the the sidewalk shifted without warning, uprooted by roots, causing them all to stumble.

Slowly, everyone picked themselves up and turned to Jade.

She threw her hands up defensively, knowing what they were going to say. "Okay," She said hastily, with an obviously fake smile. "I'll admit, that's less great. It's a little more growth than I was expecting. But nothing we can't handle. We just hafta trim it. Jimmy, you know a spell that can cut these things down to size, right?"

Jimmy sighed, but nodded. He pulled one of Uncle's spare blowfish out of his jacket, then hesitated nervously. "Why do we always get into these situations?" he groaned.

"I'll totally take the blame on this one," Jade said, "But can we ask those sorts of questions later?"

"Point." He gulped. Realizing that everyone was waiting for him to get in there, he swallowed his nervousness and rushed to reduce the overgrowth to a manageable size. "Well," he shrugged, "at least these things don't seem all that dangerous. Big, yeah, but not dangerous."

Once more on cue, the Earth decided to quit shaking and outright exploded. As soon as Jimmy entered the gates a trio of gigantic plants burst out of the ground, each with huge, fly-trap like mouths and long, tendril like "arms." Flowers burst out of their sides like a cactus, but even those were attached thorns that looked like they could cut a whole car in half.

Jimmy "shouted" at the top of his lungs (he would not admit to shrieking like a kindergartener, no matter how much the others teased him about it later), and leapt back. "What the heck are those?!" He yelled.

"Huh." In contrast to Jimmy's total shock, Paco reacted with a more mild surprise that did little to ease Jimmy's nerves. "Giant flytraps. I suppose we should've expected something like that."

"Yeah," Jade mumbled. "I saw em' for sale at a flea market somewhere. They looked cool at the time…"

"'_Cool?'_" Jimmy yelled. "Yeah, ri-"

The flytraps interrupted, opening their gigantic maws and roaring in a way much more like fire-breathing dragons than overgrown plants. Jimmy gave another "shout," dove for cover and instinctively started throwing severing spells at whichever ecological monstrosity was nearest.

"They are going to eat him alive!" Xu-Lin shouted, which also wasn't helping Jimmy's disposition.

There was a lull in the assault, and he looked up at the beasts to realize - to his horror - that they were still growing. Every time he cut off one limb it just grew back a few seconds later. Even the "heads" would instantly return with just as many hungry teeth as before. With a "grunt" (not a whimper), he booked it back to the others as fast as his feet could carry him. The flytraps followed him, but seemed satisfied that he was out of their "hair" once he crossed the gate and turned their destructive intent to the surrounding buildings.

Meanwhile, Jade was shaking the gemstone as hard as she could in a desperate attempt to stop its effects. "Okay, that's enough! Stop growing!" She violently shook the stone in her hand trying to get it to shut off, but to no avail. The vines, now directed by the flytraps, began wrapping themselves around _everything_ nearby, trampling street signs and mailboxes are underfoot and squeezing buildings until they started to crack. "Why won't this thing work!" She groaned loudly, nearly throwing the gemstone into the distance.

"Alright," she sighed, forcible calming herself down. "I'll totally take the blame – cause this was obviously a terrible idea. Jimmy, tell me you've still got this!"

"Yeah, cause I totally expected to be fighting giant plant monsters today! If they keep growing like this nothing I've got will work, unless you've got a big honking sword hidden somewhere around here! Though maybe I could whip something up if I had some ingredients from Uncle's shop…"

"Okay, no prob!" Jade said. "Xu-Lin and I will go get what we can. You and Paco just try and keep it from getting worse."

"Oh, sure. Give us the dangerous job."

"With Yade, they all end up dangerous somehow…"

Without responding, Jade and Xu-Lin raced down the street towards Uncle's.

"Tch. Stupid thing…" Jade growled, staring ruefully at the gemstone in her hand. She heard a soft giggle from next to her, and turned to see Xu-Lin staring at her with an expectant look.

"What?" She said. Xu-Lin just smiled – in one smile mixing calm, disappointment, amusement and a bit of smugness into a single expression. Jade caught onto the meaning very quickly, and groaned. "Oh, come on. I already admitted this whole thing was my bad. What more do you want me to say?"

"I did not say anything."

"Seriously, you're never gonna let me live this down, are ya?"

Despite the situation, Xu-Lin laughed again. "I did not say anything!"

* * *

**_Back In Denmark_**

"Why am I not surprised that you have a backup hideout, even though you were only planning to be here for a day or two?"

After the explosion at the hotel, Viper quickly led Jackie and El Toro away from the danger zone to what she claimed would be a safe place where she could debrief – or at least learn as much as she knew.

This safe place turned out to be as different from her previous upscale room as one could possibly get. In contrast to the clean isolation of the hotel, this was an almost literal hole in the wall in the most populated part of the city – the perfect place to go if you want to blend in, as Viper said. Jackie and El Toro were used to places like this in their lines of work – archeologists and men of the people tended to be used to crowded places - so it wasn't all that unconfortable. The inside was simple, with one nearly room and kitchen, but the corner of the room with the high-end laptop and stashed infiltration equipment made it clear whose home this was.

It wasn't much, but the fact that she already had the whole place set up so easily was impressive.

She only shrugged when Jackie brought that up."I make sure I have backup hideouts everywhere I go. It's just common sense. You never know when you'll be forced underground."

"What about in San Francisco? Have you got safehouses there?" Jackie asked, though he was more curious than really meaning to pry.

"Well, in Frisco I have Section 13, don't I? Plus there's always your place…"

"You use Uncle's shop as a_ hideout?"_

"Only sometimes, when I'm staying over anyway…"

Jackie slapped his forehead. "Remind me to never bring any of this up to Uncle."

"Sorry to interrupt, amigos," El Toro said, pushing himself into the conversation. "But is any of this helping us learn the nature of our enemy or how to find him?"

"Right. Sorry about that, big guy," Viper sighed. "I don't know much, but I'll try to keep your interest. Make yourselves at home boys, this could be a long story."

Jackie sat down on a couch, while El Toro took a creaky looking chair that looked like it might break at any moment.

"His name is Damgaard. Kasper Damgaard. A long time ago, when I was younger and much less of a good girl, I robbed him of a very rare painting…"

And so she went on to explain everything that happened the previous night. She embellished in a few places and left some embarrassing details out, but the story was more or less the same. At the end of the tale, her audience was on the edge of their seats – which in El Toro's case was starting to crack from the weight.

"The hombre breathes _fire?_" El Toro gaped.

"Among other things."

"That explains the inferno at the hotel." Jackie said sagely. "But the only person I've know to do that is…"

"… Shendu. Yeah, I thought about that. The big lizard didn't happen to have an extra set of talismans stashed anywhere, did he?"

"No. This is something else." Jackie put a hand to his chin, deep in thought. "What else do we know about him?"

"I did a little more digging. Damgaard was disowned by his family after his family after his breakdown. For a while, he lived in one of their smaller estates, but eventually he lost that to the bank. He's been off the grid ever since. Besides being obsessed with me and somehow becoming a walking flamethrower, he's a total mystery."

There was a short silence as they all mulled this over. El Toro looked around the room. "That reminds me." He said "What did you do with Senor Crane? He may know something, and Captain Black will be happy to hear of his capture as well."

"No such luck. I had to let him go. Didn't really have the resources to keep him under wraps, and I got the feeling I would have other things to worry about."

El Toro sighed, though he understood. "Si. Makes sense. Then we have nothing going forward?"

"Nothing solid, though I've been thinking…" Viper mused. "It stands to reason that if Philip Crane ran afoul of our hotheaded friend, he did so while trying to rob him. But as far as I know, Damgaard had no money."

"Maybe." Jackie said, closely studying the file on Viper's computer. "What about his family?"

"No such luck. They hate me just as much as he does, but they hate _him_ almost as much. Nice bunch. Either way, they punted him off and still pretend that neither of us exist."

"Oh." Jackie hummed and clicked through a few more pages. "What about this? The file here says that even though he was evicted from his estate, the actual building is abandoned and out of use. Maybe he snuck back in."

"So maybe he's not the only one with a secret hideout? It's a possibility. Time to check it out?"

"I was going to suggest calling the police, but…"

El Toro interrupted Jackie's train of thought with a shrug. "-but they may be outmatched if he truly does have magical powers. Besides, it beats sitting here waiting to be attacked."

Jackie sighed. "I suppose it does," he said wearily. "Why do we always end up in these situations?"

Viper laughed. "It wouldn't be us if things didn't get crazy." She smirked and sent him a playful wink. Jackie turned away as she looked up the address, but the other two still caught the small smile hidden on his face and shared a fond glance themselves. Despite it all, it did feel good to be on another adventure together.

**_Later..._**

It was evening by the time they reached Damgaard's supposedly abandoned estate. The house was the picture of rustic charm, which is to say it was thoroughly creepy - had Jade been there with them she probably would have made at least a dozen "haunted mansion" comments by the time they reached the foyer. It had all the callsigns: it was on a ominous looking hill, miles from civilzation, it was falling apart in pieces and the hills surrounded it were dotted with ominous looking ruins. Even Jackie found it hard not to say something about how spooky the place was.

But even so, El Toro's even-tempered quip that "Damgaard's neighborhood had seen better days" failed to get much of a reaction. None of them were in much of a laughing mood.

"This estate must have been built on a Norse ceremonial ground," Jackie said in a whisper, as he inspected a buried stone pillar jutting out from under the hills.

"That doesn't mean ghosts, does it? I've seen the movies." Viper said, only half-joking.

Jackie shot her an unimpressed look, but even he wasn't sure whether they were about set off something nasty. The archaeologist in him said no, but he'd been in too many adventures not to be a little suspicious. Luckily, a quick but careful sweep of the grounds determined that nothing worth looking at was happening outside, so they wouldn't have to go looking around the woods and ruins in the dark of night.

The bad news was that meant they would have to go _in_side.

"This place gives me the creeps. Muy miedo…" El Toro said as they entered. He needn't have bothered – they were all feeling it. The interior was even more unsettling than the outside. The center room was huge and covered in dust and echoed with the groaning of poorly settling wood. Dim shadows fell over the halls, as the moonlight from outside shined through the windows.

The group cautiously made their way further in, ignoring the ominous way the panels of the floor creaked beneath their feet. They unconsciously huddled together, half-suspecting any shadow to contain an ambush.

"Any idea what we're looking for?" Viper whispered, eyes darting to every corner. Though it seemed mostly empty, as a trained thief her instincts were going haywire the longer they stayed in this creepy place.

"No," Jackie said. "But we'll know it when we see it. It'll be something bi-aaaah!" With his usual luck, Jackie walked onto a trick floor which immediately collapsed, exposing a massively deep pit in the middle of the room. There was a ladder on the side – it was only thanks to Jackie's honed reflexes that he was able to twist and grab it before he fell. It took him a moment to calm down. "See what I mean?" He panted, holding the ladder for dear life.

Viper and El Toro looked just stared down at the pit. It was either too dark or too deep to see the bottom, possibly both. "That is a big hole." El Toro said bluntly. Viper chuckled her agreement.

Once his heart stopped beating out his chest, Jackie took out a flashlight and slid down the pit to investigate. He paid particular attention to the walls, which he noted had various old symbols on them in some places – almost as if someone were marking the depth. "I don't think this is just a hole," he called up to his friends. "Someone found something here."

"Duh," Viper said, sounding a lot like a certain niece. "There are ruins all over this place. You could trip over a rock and find 'something' here." Though she chuckled at her own joke, she and El Toro were already making their way down the ladder to join him.

"I suppose so, but it's not what I mean…" Jackie said. Once he got below a certain depth, the symbols became more numerous, and were now joined by eroded writing that he could barely make out. Instead of dirt, he was running into stone. "It's almost as if the ruins themselves were also built on top of something." He finally reached the bottom and found himself in a spacious chamber, which had been excavated around some kind of ruin. "Something much older…"

"Something like what?" Viper said, surprising Jackie by appearing right at his shoulder. He turned, and was surprised again to see El Toro right behind her.

Deciding to comment on his allies' surprising speed some other time, he turned his attention back to the room. "I think we're about to find out," he said.

He shined his flashlight on the chamber, revealing the ruin around them to be some kind of shrine. There were images carved into the walls, all surrounded a podium where something important might have lain. Some of the art was visibly of Norse origin, but there were other parts of it that he was entirely unfamiliar with – the entire experience was giving him a bad feeling of déjà vu, especially when he noticed the largest carving just above the podium - depicting a grand figure holding six stars.

El Toro gasped, recognizing the image as well. "Amigo, is that-"

"It can't be…"

As the only one not reacting, Viper felt a bit of irritation. "You boys wanna clue me in on what's going on?" She said, crossing her arms.

Jackie slowly walked forward, only vaguely listening. "I remember these symbols from Mexico. I think this could be a shrine to another one of the chi artifacts!"

"The… what!?" Viper shouted in surprise. "What are the chances?"

"I do not wish to know." El Toro groaned, hanging back as Jackie leaned in for a closer look. Clearly, he had not forgotten the Cadejo.

Jackie peered closely at the podium, shining his light on some writing there. "An inscription! Uncle taught me a little… it says 'those of worthy will, under the light become stronger as you are.'"

Viper cocked her head, a little confused. "Don't you mean 'will under the light become stronger _than_ you are?'"

"It says _'as_ you are.' I'm not sure why. And there seems to be a separation there. But we should definitely call Uncle to be sure." Having done all the checking over they were comfortable with doing so far without outside help, Jackie turned back to the ladder and was soon joined by the others. He wasn't about to go barging into another Chi Artifact situation without being prepared, not after the near fiasco in Mexico – though he did hesitate a bit in making the call. "He's going to kill me for tearing him away from that antiquing convention," he groaned halfway up the pit, following just behind El Toro.

Even when looking at his phone, he could practically see Viper's raised eyebrow below him. "I think this is a little more important than moldy old furniture," she said sarcastically.

Jackie nodded and put the phone to his ear. No ringing. He quickly checked it over and sighed. "It doesn't matter anyway," he said, pointing at something on the display. "No bars."

"I thought that phone was one of Section 13's?" El Toro mused. He had since made it all the way up, and now turned to help the others. "They never lose coverage."

"Maybe this is just that much of a dead zone," Viper said, waiting for Jackie to clear the pit.

But before she could follow, a familiar voice answered. "You have no idea."

Jackie nearly slipped off of the edge. "Damgaard!" He shouted, hastening his efforts up the ladder. Below him, Viper tensed.

"Oh, swell."

While Jackie was still trying to scramble over the ledge, El Toro shot into action. "Surrender, matón!" He pointed threateningly at their twisted-faced opponent, his posture showing no mercy. "Do not make this any worse for yourself after your crimes at the hotel!"

"Jackie Chan, and El Toro Fuerte. Current associates of Viper." Damgaard said softly, as though El Toro hadn't just threatened him. "I know a great deal about you. You are doers of good. Agents of nobility. Which makes the fact that you have thrown in with such scum very disappointing."

Jackie and El Toro scowled at the insult to their friend, but managed to keep their tempers even. "Viper reformed a long time ago." El Toro said forcefully. "She is no more a criminal than any of us, except perhaps for you!"

Damgaard ignored him. "Because of your noble reputations, I'm willing to let you two leave. The _thief_ is the only one of you I care about." He spat the word thief, as though the very word was poison.

"I'm afraid we can't do that." Jackie said. He quickly glanced back at the ladder, and saw that Viper had used the distraction to disappear – likely to find a good place to strike from. The situation was clearly about to fall apart, but even so he had to at least try for a peaceful solution. "Can't you just take El Toro's suggestion and talk this out?" He asked, even as he fell into a fighting stance.

"Never. Not when I am so close." He lifted his lantern to eye level, and for the first time Jackie could see the now familiar ornate symbols and gems woven into its design. It was clearly no simple torch. Damgaard gazed at it with a look of almost adoring intensity. "You were wondering what it is I found down below, were you not?"

"Enough!" El Toro bellowed. He rushed at Damgaard, clearly intending to take him down before he tried any tricks - but Damgaard was ready.

"El Toro, wait!" Jackie shouted, but it was too late. Suddenly the lantern lighted itself, bathing Damgaard in an eerie red glow. Scarlet lines etched itself into his skin like crags in a volcano before fading.

He held out his hand. A wave of fire erupted out from it, striking El Toro in the chest and carrying him well across the room. He slammed into the wall with a crack and fell to the floor in a heap, unmoving. Damgaard gave no outward to reaction to this brutal show of power, neither satisfaction nor anger. He merely watched El Toro fall, and then coldly turned his attention to Jackie.

Before he could react, Jackie heard a shout of "BACK OFF!," and like a shadow Viper dropped from the ceiling onto Damgaard's back. She tried straight away to get a hold around his neck, but he recovered quickly and fought back. In between scuffling she sent Jackie a nod to tell him that he didn't have much time, and so without hesitating he ran to El Toro's side to quickly check his friend's condition - leaving it to Viper to keep their opponent occupied in the meantime. Which, since Damgaard stated goal was to kill her, did little to ease his worry.

Damgaard had clearly not had much experience fighting, but he was strong – it was probably the lantern's strange power, not that knowing that helped Viper's chances any. She was slowly but surely losing her hold over him, and was finding it hard to maneuver him into a better stance.

"This is on me," she shouted in his ear, trying at least to distract him from injuring her friends further. "I'm the one who screwed you over. Leave those two out of it."

"Enough!" He shouted. His body suddenly exploded with flame, and Viper was thrown off of him. She hit the ground roughly – it took her a moment to get back to her feet, and when she looked up Damgaard was advancing toward her. "They could have stepped aside, but they continued to protect you from justice. They're just as guilty."

"I'm telling you I'm not that person any more!" She said, trying one last sincere attempt to get through to him before things got any worse.

His lip curled. He stared coldly at her, his hand alight. "Ask me if I care."

Another fireball erupted from his hand, but she was able to dodge at the last second. The attack flew out of control and made contact with the wall just above Jackie and El Toro. To Viper's horror it exploded, showering the two in shrapnel and debris.

Viper's face contorted with shock. "NO!" she shouted, and in one motion she spun and kicked Damgaard hard in the head. The sudden attack sent him straight to the floor, where he lied motionless while Viper rushed towards her buried friends.

It wasn't bad, thankfully, but it did stun Jackie enough that Viper had to do all of the work pulling all of the rubble off of them. Not to mention that El Toro was still down for the count. There just wasn't enough to time to tend to all that and watch her back at the same time.

Sure enough, she had only gotten halfway through the rubble when Damgaard recovered – far faster than she would have liked. Still reeling from the kick to the face, he blearily eyed Viper – noticing Jackie and El Toro's predicament for the first time. He smiled cruelly as an idea struck him. "What an effective concept." He said. "But it could use more… weight."

He ignited his hands into a red hot flame and created a massive fireball – which he then threw into the ceiling. The ball detonated on contact, forming a titanic explosion that shook and destabilized the entire building. The creaking walls finally splintered and gave way, breaking off in massive chunks and caving in like an avalanche upon all of their heads.

Engrossed in rescuing the others as she was, Viper almost didn't notice as a massive chunk of the ceiling fell from above. She had only just enough time to grab the others and pull them out of the danger zone before the whole area got covered in even _more_ rubble, but quickly realized that there wouldn't be anything _but_ danger zones soon. The entire house was coming down.

"Hey, wake up!" She slapped Jackie in the face, trying to break him out of the daze. "I can't drag you both out of here!" From behind her, Damgaard was chuckling.

She heard him shout "Goodbye, Thief!" and she turned to face him just in time to see an explosion detonate at his feet, propelling him out of the house like a rocket. There was no time to follow him, let alone time to get the others out. Unable to think of anything else to do, she dove over Jackie and El Toro and shook them wildly in one last desperate attempt to wake them up.

A moment later the building roared as the walls finally gave way, and the entire ceiling came down on top of them…

Damgaard landed on the hills outside just in time to see the building collapse into a massive mound of wood and stone.

For a long time he did nothing but stare at the twisted remains of his old home watching for any sign of escape. No movement caught his eye, and that served him just fine. It was impossible to think anyone but him could survive something like that in the first place, let alone escape the wreckage. If he'd just barely gotten out, neither Viper nor especially her injured friends could have hoped to follow him.

He grinned, full of malice. He had finally done it. "Justice is delivered." He said to himself. A cold happiness spread over him.

With that, he pointed at the remains of the estate and set it alight for good measure. The dilapidated ruin began to burn in the night, causing billows of smoke to rise into the air like an incinerator.

Then, pleased with his handiwork, he turned and starting walking towards Odense. Never once did he turn back to watch the burning wreck behind him.

* * *

**_Meanwhile, in San Fransisco_**

Jade and Xu-Lin were sprinting as fast as they could towards Uncle's shop when suddenly Xu-Lin stopped in her tracks. She stumbled backwards and leaned against a wall, clutching her midsection.

It took Jade a moment to realize Xu-Lin wasn't following her, but once she did she stopped as well. Before she could ask whether her friend as okay, Xu-Lin cut her off.

"Jade…" she groaned. "I'm changing… danger..!"

Jade sighed in misplaced relief. "Duh! We just left Paco and Jimmy with a bunch of man-eating trees! Wait… this is perfect! If you change into the Guardian, you could totally freeze those plants right in their tracks! No chi-spell necessary!"

Xu-Lin tried to glare at Jade's usual lack of tact, but the strain of keeping herself from changing kept her eyes welded shut.

"You do not understand… not them…"

Jade blanched. "What? If it's not them, who is it? Us?" She looked herself over and then started scanning the neighborhood, trying to tell whether something was attacking them without her noticing. "We're not about to get ninja'd, are we?"

"No!" Xu-Lin groaned sharply, willing her friend to shut up and let her speak. "Your Uncle Jackie!" She forced out. "Someone is trying to kill him! I can feel it! "

Jade froze in mid-stride. Her stomach hit the floor. "What?" Jade whirled towards the coast, which separated her uncle from her with thousands of miles of land and ocean. If he really was in mortal danger, there was nothing any of them could do about it.

"Uncle Jackie…"

* * *

**Author's Note:** Me – "Okay, so I've been working on this off and on for a while but I'm sure it hasn't been too long since… _over a year?!"_

Sorry folks. Time got away from me. Not to mention this was an especially meaty chapter - at least for me. In which Viper's enemy is insane, things explode and as a side plot Jade gets everyone into another pickle back home.

Fun fact: The original idea for this way back when I was planning this whole thing was to have the gem affect one of them rather than a garden, but then I realized it didn't make sense with the gem's actual powerset.


End file.
